The Energon Pub

Surely about 5 years ago, something like this would have been completely inconceivable? A high quality transformers product created by a new company, completely unaffiliated with the official manufacturers and based entirely on an original character created for an official Transformers comic by a fanfic writer who made it and illustrated by a fan artist who made it. If Mastermind Creations Cynicus is not worthy of “For the fans, by the fans”, I don’t know what is. Based on the IDW More Than Meets The Eye original Decepticon Justice Division character “Vos”, MMC’s Cynicus takes the vision of James Roberts with the visual execution of Alex Milne and gives it form. The DJD’s newest member has a toy.

MMC Cynicus – An Original Creation | Source Blog <- CLICK TO READ





All the best
Maz

Think MMC is too slow to make anymore combiners or group toys of Five, DJD.

Think doing Five or Ten niche non G-1 toys all at once for the year. Is a huge gamble mistake. 5 DJD toys plus Five repurposed characters toys.

Hoping MMC can easily recover from this. If these DJD toys don't sell as well as MMC is hoping they will.

Think MMC needs to do a TW. If a few of these DJD figures don't sell as expected. Think TW was smart to delay the rest of the Trottlebots and release other toys. When TW saw the Trottlebots sales were poor.

Noticed online on all of the forums. half of the buyers for these DJD toys have decided not to but any DJD toys.

One thing, Hasbro/Tomy is releasing a lot of the official figs that are waaaaaaaaaaay cheaper. Cheaper means mo' money in your pockets to buy mo' figures.

Great review as always, Maz. But I have no attachment to this character, so pass for me.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Think MMC is too slow to make anymore combiners or group toys of Five, DJD.

Think doing Five or Ten niche non G-1 toys all at once for the year. Is a huge gamble mistake. 5 DJD toys plus Five repurposed characters toys.

Hoping MMC can easily recover from this. If these DJD toys don't sell as well as MMC is hoping they will.

Think MMC needs to do a TW. If a few of these DJD figures don't sell as expected. Think TW was smart to delay the rest of the Trottlebots and release other toys. When TW saw the Trottlebots sales were poor.

Noticed online on all of the forums. half of the buyers for these DJD toys have decided not to but any DJD toys.

Remember Toyworld Grind Rod (Rollbar) sold out completely. It was after they revealed their neo intentions with Aurora that sales declined. And Trace sold out too just not as fast.

I originally wasnt interested in DJD, but after reading their bios on TF Wiki I became very interested. And 90 bucks isnt going to break my bank. Especially at MMC's pace of releasing figures. If it was 150 or more then I might be more inclined to complain.

Rated X wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Think MMC is too slow to make anymore combiners or group toys of Five, DJD.

Think doing Five or Ten niche non G-1 toys all at once for the year. Is a huge gamble mistake. 5 DJD toys plus Five repurposed characters toys.

Hoping MMC can easily recover from this. If these DJD toys don't sell as well as MMC is hoping they will.

Think MMC needs to do a TW. If a few of these DJD figures don't sell as expected. Think TW was smart to delay the rest of the Trottlebots and release other toys. When TW saw the Trottlebots sales were poor.

Noticed online on all of the forums. half of the buyers for these DJD toys have decided not to but any DJD toys.

Remember Toyworld Grind Rod (Rollbar) sold out completely. It was after they revealed their neo intentions with Aurora that sales declined. And Trace sold out too just not as fast.

I originally wasnt interested in DJD, but after reading their bios on TF Wiki I became very interested. And 90 bucks isnt going to break my bank. Especially at MMC's pace of releasing figures. If it was 150 or more then I might be more inclined to complain.

Not prepared to spend over $500 for non G1 update Third party DJD TF toys.

I'll be honest, If Hasbro released these Five DJD toys. For under $100 usa retail, Then i'd buy them all.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Think MMC is too slow to make anymore combiners or group toys of Five, DJD.

Think doing Five or Ten niche non G-1 toys all at once for the year. Is a huge gamble mistake. 5 DJD toys plus Five repurposed characters toys.

Hoping MMC can easily recover from this. If these DJD toys don't sell as well as MMC is hoping they will.

Think MMC needs to do a TW. If a few of these DJD figures don't sell as expected. Think TW was smart to delay the rest of the Trottlebots and release other toys. When TW saw the Trottlebots sales were poor.

Noticed online on all of the forums. half of the buyers for these DJD toys have decided not to but any DJD toys.

Remember Toyworld Grind Rod (Rollbar) sold out completely. It was after they revealed their neo intentions with Aurora that sales declined. And Trace sold out too just not as fast.

I originally wasnt interested in DJD, but after reading their bios on TF Wiki I became very interested. And 90 bucks isnt going to break my bank. Especially at MMC's pace of releasing figures. If it was 150 or more then I might be more inclined to complain.

Not prepared to spend over $500 for non G1 update Third party DJD TF toys.

I'll be honest, If Hasbro released these Five DJD toys. For under $100 usa retail, Then i'd buy them all.

I remember, you were ready to spend over $250 on a two foot tall BTS Novalord. And at the time BTS had no transformable figures under their belt except for a few poor quality cassettes. So its really not fair to say these figures arent important enough for fans to spend big bucks on just because you dont have a connection to the characters. Some DJD fans might feel the same way about Overlord but theyre not calling for a delay in Carnifex to speed up DJD releases.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Noticed online on all of the forums. half of the buyers for these DJD toys have decided not to but any DJD toys.

People talk a lot of smack online T.

These are popular characters from a company known for high quality.

People are a bit PO'd right now that there was an unexpected price hike, and are getting their panties in a twist. But unless these same folks haven't noticed ALL toys have hit a big price hike recently.

The upscaled legends that pass as deluxes these days are getting close to $20 in my area. Even target and Walmart are around $18.99, up from $14.99 a year ago.

Looking at the regular release Hasbro figures all the contributing factors to a product's cost are down.
Size is down
complexity (parts count) is down
plastic quality is down

But cost is UP ... almost 20% up!

For 3p, most of those factors are held the same, the size and complexity for the vast majority of the 3P figures are the same for sure. People can say what they want about plastic quality, but IMO most 3P plastic beats what is coming out at retail by a long shot. But whatever, 3P prices, while high, have been pretty consistent, especially from the same manufacturer, for a while. It is nonsense to believe that wahtever is affecting overall toy prices wouldn't eventually hit the 3P space.

Now, will this affect people's buying decisions? Sure it will! Was I willing to buy this figure at the lower price? Yes I was. Am I willing to buy him at the higher price ... I dunno, I'm still deciding.

A lot of people are in my boat, I'd wager. The natural reaction to a price hike is to hold their breath, stomp their feet and squeal with nerd-rage, but some fraction of that caterwauling group will still want the figures enough to pony up the funds. I suspect I'll probably end up getting at least a few of the characters.

rpetras wrote:


Now, will this affect people's buying decisions? Sure it will! Was I willing to buy this figure at the lower price? Yes I was. Am I willing to buy him at the higher price ... I dunno, I'm still deciding.

I was going to get this for sure before the price hike, but now? I'm still going to get it! =P As I've stated though, I don't plan to get it right away because why would I? I doubt it'll sell out cause people are bitching at the price, I haven't seen how unbelievably awesome their Tarn is yet (those pics sucks), No reason to preorder it. I'll just wait to see if there's a deal somewhere for closer to the original price once it's instock, if not I'll just throw it together with something else I want and get free shipping on an $150 order. I've been doing this a lot lately as almost no 3p pieces sells out before it comes in stock. My POL has actually been empty since December! =X

mooncake623 wrote:

rpetras wrote:


Now, will this affect people's buying decisions? Sure it will! Was I willing to buy this figure at the lower price? Yes I was. Am I willing to buy him at the higher price ... I dunno, I'm still deciding.

I was going to get this for sure before the price hike, but now? I'm still going to get it! =P As I've stated though, I don't plan to get it right away because why would I? I doubt it'll sell out cause people are bitching at the price, I haven't seen how unbelievably awesome their Tarn is yet (those pics sucks), No reason to preorder it. I'll just wait to see if there's a deal somewhere for closer to the original price once it's instock, if not I'll just throw it together with something else I want and get free shipping on an $150 order. I've been doing this a lot lately as almost no 3p pieces sells out before it comes in stock. My POL has actually been empty since December! =X

I don't see the price going down more than ten bucks unless another company decides to compete with them on DJD characters. I honestly believe the only reason MMC fembots were released so cheap is because Hasbro put theirs out first.

Minus this DJD Cynicus toy. MMC is actually one of the few Third party companies that offer lower prices for their toys compared to the competition.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Minus this DJD Cynicus toy. MMC is actually one of the few Third party companies that offer lower prices for their toys compared to the competition.

Hexatron was $140. The Feral Rex limbs were $100 each (not counting bbts early bird specials) The hearts of steel line seekers and primes were about $80 a piece. Other than the fembots, what MMC figures had low prices ? I cant name any. Please do...

And dont say the repaints of the little submarine.

mooncake623 wrote:No reason to preorder it. I'll just wait to see if there's a deal somewhere for closer to the original price once it's instock, if not I'll just throw it together with something else I want and get free shipping on an $150 order. I've been doing this a lot lately as almost no 3p pieces sells out before it comes in stock. My POL has actually been empty since December! =X

I've been holding off a lot too.

Waiting for better deals, sales, clearances, coupons ... whatever.

Feral Rex was the last thing that really had me excited as a collector.

I stopped collecting comics a few years ago, so I'm not as into the DJD guys. If I was still getting the comics, I'd probably be all over them. As it is, I'm in wait for a deal mode.

Rated X wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Minus this DJD Cynicus toy. MMC is actually one of the few Third party companies that offer lower prices for their toys compared to the competition.

Hexatron was $140. The Feral Rex limbs were $100 each (not counting bbts early bird specials) The hearts of steel line seekers and primes were about $80 a piece. Other than the fembots, what MMC figures had low prices ? I cant name any. Please do...

And dont say the repaints of the little submarine.

I'm fed up with you again. So i'm going back to ignoring you for a few more months.

Convinced the sole purpose you are here is to start trouble and fight with others. All because you get fed up and can't handle newer toys not being made in the G1 Cartoon CHUG scale.

It's a nice toy, but there are so many nice toys.

Gotta admit, news of the price jump does turn me off. It's not a fortune, but it does make the price just a little more unattractive compared to what we're getting.

Had they done the early bird trick, I may have jumped. The DJD are pretty cool.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Minus this DJD Cynicus toy. MMC is actually one of the few Third party companies that offer lower prices for their toys compared to the competition.

Hexatron was $140. The Feral Rex limbs were $100 each (not counting bbts early bird specials) The hearts of steel line seekers and primes were about $80 a piece. Other than the fembots, what MMC figures had low prices ? I cant name any. Please do...

And dont say the repaints of the little submarine.

I'm fed up with you again. So i'm going back to ignoring you for a few more months.

Convinced the sole purpose you are here is to start trouble and fight with others. All because you get fed up and can't handle newer toys not being made in the G1 Cartoon CHUG scale.

How did we go from arguing about prices to CHUG scale on this particular thread ? I never mentioned anything about scale here. Were talking about MMCs prices and our opinions about them.

I'm torn between this, maketoys TT&CW, or get caught up on combiner wars stuff as my next purchase?

I will pay 90 for this and not care one bit, I enjoy the concept of the D.J.D that much.